


Lullaby for a Princess

by Caisin



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Maiden Warrior secondary ship, Original Character(s), Swan-Mills Family, various other characters from fiction with cameos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-21 06:17:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11938092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caisin/pseuds/Caisin
Summary: “‘Baby in the woods, get to the hospital’ wasn’t the most informative message,” Emma says as soon as she sees Mulan pacing just outside the hospital doors.“It got you here, didn’t it?” Mulan says.  She hands Emma a coffee.Emma rolls her eyes, but nods and accepts the coffee gratefully.  Some kind of phone etiquette crash course will do the entire sheriff’s station good.She takes a gulp of coffee and winces.  She should have been expecting hospital coffee, since it’s early even for Granny to be preparing the diner for the morning.“So, a baby?”“Yup.”An infant is found in the woods.  The Swan-Mills home is the safest place for her, but Emma isn't sure they'll be able to let go once they find her family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cashmerecandycane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashmerecandycane/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Baby Makes Four [Fanart]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11937993) by [cashmerecandycane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashmerecandycane/pseuds/cashmerecandycane). 



> massive thanks to the supernova mods for making this happen for TWO YEARS IN A ROW! it's amazing how many new Swan Queen fanworks have come together because of this. 
> 
> i'm so grateful for everyone who has helped me the past several months, especially my writing team, Zohra and Sweets. the writing chat, for helping me with the plot when this was just a handful of fluffy scenes with no direction, and twitter, for being amazing at boosting my confidence. and Mere and J who convinced me to do this in the first place and then supported me the whole way through. this fic wouldn't be here without this amazing community.
> 
> an extra big special thanks to Tianna, my artist, who inspired this fic in the first place with her gorgeous manips. we finally did a thing together!! \o/
> 
> as for fic things: this is canon divergent taking place in the future after a big change that happens at the town line at the end of Going Home in season three. we're at about s6 on the timeline, but many of those things haven't happened and who even knows what ouat's timeline is anyway (probably only Lana). everything should fit together as the story progresses.

The phone rings and it feels like it can’t have been more than fifteen minutes since she finally managed to drift off.  When she finally gets her eyes open, the clock on her nightstand tells her it’s not quite four in the morning.

 

The phone rings again and she groans as she reaches for it.

 

Another groan echoes Emma’s.  “Turn it off,” Regina says.

 

As if obeying her, the phone stops ringing as soon as Emma grabs it.  It’s the station.

 

Fuck.

 

“It’s Mulan.”  Emma sits up and unlocks her phone, and notices the new voicemail icon popping up.

 

Regina rolls away from her and the phone’s light.

 

“You’re not on call,” she says into her pillow.

 

“And Mulan wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important,” Emma says.  She gets out of bed, digging around in her drawers by only the light of the phone for some clothes and grabs yesterday’s jeans from the armchair in the corner.  When she goes back to the bed to kiss Regina’s hair, her wife's face still firmly planted in her pillow.  “Go back to sleep, hopefully I won’t be long.”

 

Regina answers her with a snore and she chuckles, giving her another light kiss before listening to the message.

 

*

 

“‘Baby in the woods, get to the hospital’ wasn’t the most informative message,” Emma says as soon as she sees Mulan pacing just outside the hospital doors.

 

“It got you here, didn’t it?” Mulan says.  She hands Emma a coffee.

 

Emma rolls her eyes, but nods and accepts the coffee gratefully.  Some kind of phone etiquette crash course will do the entire sheriff’s station good.  

 

She takes a gulp of coffee and winces.  She should have been expecting hospital coffee, since it’s early even for Granny to be preparing the diner for the morning.

 

“So, a baby?”

 

“Yup.”

 

There’s silence between them as they enter the building, and while Mulan’s never been one for small talk, Emma thinks this is probably Mulan giving her space to wake up properly.  She follows Mulan through the first level of the hospital as she leads them to the correct elevator.  

 

The initial bliss of getting to sip her coffee in near silence is broken when she notices just how empty everything is around her.  

 

Not that Storybrooke is in a constant state of emergency these days and it _is_ 4:15am, but between the magic and the fictional villains and the continuous trickle of new people popping through portals who aren’t familiar with electricity or cars, the hospital is usually full of people moving around.  It takes some effort to tamp down the voice in her head telling her that the quiet is trying to lull her into idleness so she’s unprepared for disaster.  

 

She takes a long, slow breath and a longer drink of coffee, and tells herself to relax.  Some baby being left in the woods is not a sign for an impending apocalypse.  She hopes.

 

“A couple of Merry Men found her,” Mulan finally explains when they get in the elevator.  “She’s probably only a few months old.  There doesn’t seem to be much wrong with her, but it isn’t my job to make that call.”

 

Emma nods.  It takes an effort to keep her eyes open when she’s pretty sure she could fall asleep while standing right here.  The ding of the elevator announcing that they’d reached their floor jolts Emma upright; from Mulan’s smirk, she thinks she may have actually dozed off for a few seconds.

 

“The nursery is right over there,” Mulan says, pointing down the hall to the left as they step out of the elevator.  “Nurse Ogawa should be with the babies.  I need to find Doc again.”

 

She nods again and heads down the hall as directed, wishing Mulan had thought to bring her two cups of awful coffee.  Thankfully, it isn’t far before she finds a door labeled _NURSERY_.

 

People coming through portals from other realms hasn’t been the only reason for Storybrooke’s population increase since time started moving again and its citizens had rediscovered their happy endings, but it is the main one.  Still, when Emma knocks on the door and the nurse lets her in, she's surprised when there’s only three infants sleeping in a room that has the capacity for far more.

 

"Where are the rest of the babies?" she asks without thinking.

 

Nurse Ogawa's kind eyes light up in amusement.  "This is only where we keep preemies or infants we need to keep an eye on.  Babies left in the woods is a new one for me, but I haven't been in Storybrooke long."  She turns her attention to her clipboard and a child who is unbelievably tiny.  Then she glances back up at Emma and smiles.  "I've heard stories though." 

 

Emma nods and leans against the wall.  She watches the babies sleep and tries not to join them while she waits for the others.  It doesn’t take long for her to feel herself nodding off again.

 

Trying for a different tactic, Emma shakes herself and bounces on her toes, hoping that maybe she can get the caffeine flowing through her bloodstream quicker.  She hears Ogawa laugh.

 

"I'll have Doc bring you more coffee," she says, pulling out her phone.  "Your baby is over there."

 

Looking past the two tiny babies, she finds a child who is noticeably older.  Emma smiles down at her as she sleeps on peacefully, without a clue that she’s being watched.

 

Emma isn’t sure what she was expecting.  Possibly a screaming child, traumatized by abandonment and who knows what else she might have experienced in the woods?  If it weren’t for the shallow cut that reddens her cheek, Emma might have disregarded her as a large newborn and assumed they were keeping this mystery child somewhere else.

 

It isn’t long before the door opens and she’s grateful.  As enjoyable as it’s been to watch three babies sleep, she is beginning to wish she could join them.  She wants to get whatever it is Mulan needs from her done so she can go back home and crawl back into bed with her wife for a few more hours.

 

“So what do we know about this baby?” Emma asks, looking up from the infant's crib when Mulan and Doc stop next to her.

 

Doc hands her a ceramic mug and she gives Ogawa an appreciative thumbs up as the nurse leaves the room.  Emma assumes it’s from his office and his own stash of coffee, and her first sip proves her right.  She makes an appreciative noise as she gulps down more of the strong, black liquid.

 

“The girl can’t be much more than a couple of months old,” Doc says once she’s lowered her mug.  “She seems to be in good health for an infant left in the woods for who knows how long, other than a few scrapes.  None of them were deep and I’m not too concerned about infection.  We’ll keep her here for the day to keep an eye on her, run some tests…”

 

“Any idea about the parents?”

 

“There were about ten births in the hospital that might fit the time frame, but home births have been getting popular, so we’ll get midwife records for you.  But there’s also the possibility of-”

 

“Portals,” Mulan says, cutting in.  “Which is why I called you down here.  If it’s something related to magic, it could be time sensitive.”

 

“That was good thinking.”  Their discussions of hiring another magically inclined citizen have been put off for months while the budget is focused on finally updating the station’s ancient computer system.  She’s regretting this now.  Even a part time consultant to bring in while she’s off duty would be far preferable to emergency calls in the middle of the night every few weeks.  “I’ll head out to the woods then, unless there’s anything else I need to know here?”

 

“The Merry Men who brought her in were told to wait where they found her til you arrive,” Mulan says, handing her a map of the town.  A section of forest not far from the farmhouse is clearly marked.

 

She looks up from the map to find Mulan watching her like she’s worried how Emma might take whatever else she has to say.  She pockets the map and gives Mulan her full attention.

 

“Is there something I should be worried about?”

 

“I’ll be working with Doc to figure out the girl’s identity and locate any family, but no one has reported any missing persons in the last several days.  We’re not sure how long it will take, even if she wasn’t somehow transported here, which is the other reason I called you in.”  Mulan pauses.  She seems to be waiting for Emma to catch on, but Emma’s got nothing.  She sighs and Emma feels like she should be annoyed at how her deputy and friend has picked this trait up from Regina and Henry.  “The Shoe is still under construction after that last attack and all the foster families have as many children as they can handle.”

 

_Ah_ _that_ , Emma thinks.  “Regina and I are still finishing up the paperwork to be able to foster,” she says.

 

“It’s either you, or send her to the fairies.”  Emma grimaces.

 

“We’d rather know that she has a good family to take her in this evening,” Doc says, not looking up from the papers he’s been reviewing.  “We’re hopeful it will be short term.”

 

“I’m sure Regina will be happy to take her in,” Emma says.  She doesn’t say that it being short term is the part they were hoping to avoid.  “But let me talk to her about it after I’m done in the woods, yeah?  I don’t want her getting a phone call about this.”

 

* 

 

Emma parks as close to where the map says she needs to be as the road will get her.  When she sees the farmhouse not far to the right, she pauses, unable to shake the feeling in her gut that Zelena must be involved, somehow.  She doesn’t like that instinct and does her best to reel it in.  Regina has been working with her sister for over a year now, and they’ve come a long way from throwing each other into clock towers and barely contained resentment.  Most importantly, Regina has come to trust Zelena, and Emma knows that earning Regina’s trust means something.

 

Still, as she nears the site where the Merry Men are waiting for her and she can still see the grey light of the nearing dawn from where the forest gives way to fields, that feeling in her gut gnaws at her.  She makes a mental note to check in on Zelena, or to have Mulan check in, and then puts it out of her mind as she continues on.  For now, she has Merry Men to deal with, and that’s enough to give her a headache on its own.

 

“Morning, Sheriff,” Will says.  Because of course it’s Will.  He holds up his flashlight, shining it directly at her face.  “Nice time for a stroll in the woods, eh?”

 

Emma rolls her eyes, not wanting to acknowledge the hour.  It seems to be enough of a suggestion to remind her that she had only gotten about four hours of sleep though.  She isn’t expecting the yawn and can’t stop it.

 

Will chuckles.  “Alan headed back when it seemed we weren’t about to face down some kind of beast,” he says and Emma nods while looking around the little clearing.  “You need me to stick around?”

 

“I do have some questions actually,” Emma says, moving to get into Will’s light and taking out a small pad of paper.  “It shouldn’t take too long, then you can head back home.  I doubt I’ll need you to help search the area.

 

“So, can you give me an overview of the events of the night leading up to finding the child?”

 

“Little John cooked up a mean venison stew with all the leftover bits from the last hunt, still very tender,” Will says, closing his eyes and smiling at the memory.  “Make sure to send our thanks to the wife, by the way.  We’re all very grateful that she’s never reinstated any of those damn laws about royal deer.”

 

“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to hear that, but if you could get to the point?  I’d like to be out of here before the sun fully rises.”

 

“Right right, that would probably be… Me and Alan were on our night watch when we saw a flash of light, a little after midnight, I think.”

 

“Did the flash have a color?”

 

“We were facing away from it, sadly,” Will says, scratching his chin.  “The whole area just lit up!  And by the time we’d turned around to see where it was coming from, the light was gone.  Made searching for where it came from bloody hard too.”

 

Emma nods as she continues taking notes.

 

“So you sent out a search party?” she prompts.

 

“Yeah there were five of us.  Djaq, Much and Tuck joined us and we were combing the woods for hours before we heard the baby crying.  Djaq is the one who found her, and that was around three?  She’s the one who brought the baby to Mulan, then me and Alan stayed here, and Much and the friar went back to camp,” he says, sticking his hands in his pockets.  “Nothing’s happened between then and now.”

 

“And none of you saw anyone coming from this area?”

 

“Not to my knowledge, but we weren’t all together so you’ll have to ask the others.”

 

“Did you notice any traces of magic when you got here?”

 

“Oh yeah, there were, now you mention it.”  He pauses and Emma looks at him expectantly.  “Just these strange sort of wisps of light flickering about-” he points a bit off in the distance - ” over there abouts.  No distinguishable coloring, before you ask.”

 

“And where was the baby?”

 

He points to a spot several feet from them and she nods before sketching out a rough map to give to Mulan.  The fact that they aren’t standing directly on top of where they found the baby or saw magic gives her hope that she might find solid evidence here.  A big improvement from when they first set up camp in the woods and used to leave portal sites looking like elephants had been through before she or Regina could get to them.

 

“Alright, I think that’s all I need,” she says, pocketing her little notebook.  “Mulan will be around in a few hours or so to ask you and the rest of the search party anything else.  Suspicious person sightings over the last few days, that sort of thing.”

 

“Right, right.  Great,” Will says, nodding.  “So…”

 

“You’re free to go.  Thanks for your help, and for sticking around.”

 

As he walks out of sight, Emma turns her attention back to the clearing.  The grey pre-dawn light has begun to seep into the trees making everything dull and colorless.  Even the stream of light from her flashlight gets absorbed into the grey.

 

Emma sighs and turns it off.  It would be far more helpful to let her eyes adjust to the light at this point.  She takes a few steps closer to the place where Will said the baby had been found and sits.  

 

A deep breath in, out.  Another.  

 

She finds a point in the distance to look at and lets her eyes unfocus.  The shades of grey begin to blur and she tries to relax.  This isn’t as easy as it is at home, where she has been practicing it a couple of times a week with Regina since they got home from Neverland over two years ago.  The cold damp of the frosty ground soaks through her pants quickly and there are roots and twigs and possibly a thistle poking her legs.

 

But she breathes again.  She imagines what the little girl sleeping at the hospital would have looked like lying on that spot in front of her.  She holds onto the image for a while and then it fades slowly.  The energy disperses around her before collecting near the place she had expected, turning into a thick grey, glowing fog.

 

Emma frowns.  She had hoped it would be more distinct; a color, a shape, anything that might give her some clue about who had done the casting.  She is certain now, at least, that whatever the magic was that the men had seen earlier that night was connected to the child they had found after.

 

She stands up and exchanges her leather gloves for a latex pair. Then she walks to the cloud of magic and pulls a pack of vials from the bag hanging at her side, uncapping three of them.  

 

This is the part she hates.  

 

Rationally, she knows that she’s taken all the precaution she needs.  Most of this magic is diluted with her own now, and the likeliness that there’s someone around she’s unfamiliar with who has magic that can still harm her at this point is incredibly low.  The part of her that spent twenty eight years not believing in magic and another three years learning a healthy fear of just how much it can fuck her up will always scream at her not to dip her hand in.  She sucks in a breath and does it anyway.

 

For those ten seconds where she can’t see her hand inside the cloud, she holds her breath.  When she can pull her fully intact hand free, scooping magic into the vials as she goes and capping them again quickly, she finally exhales.

 

She waves the magic away until it vanishes and squats to fill the remaining three vials with soil samples.  Emma smiles to herself as she puts a label on the pack, feeling much more confident.  As long as it doesn’t take forever to find that other bit of magic, she will be back home in good time.

 

Closing her eyes, she extends her senses again to get a feel for the magical landscape.  There’s always a great deal of magic lingering in these woods, magic both natural and made by any number of humans and beasts who wander through here.  Emma is able to focus in on one place in particular that is connected to the magic she had just had contact with.

 

Within moments of starting to walk towards this next source of magic, the image of the baby lying in front of her is drifting back into Emma’s thoughts.

 

This time her dark eyes are open and she’s smiling up at Emma, laughing that adorable baby laugh.  Emma is giddy at the thought of getting to share that smile with Regina, of them making her laugh together.  

 

It’s easy to see a little girl learn how to walk in the mansion, with her and Regina close, to swoop in and kiss her better when she inevitably falls.  

 

Her first word will be ‘mama’ and they’ll argue over which one of them she’d meant it for.  

 

And Regina will pretend to be mad when Emma gets her frivolous things like tiny baby converse when she has barely started crawling, but she won’t be able to stop saying how adorable she looks once they’re on.

 

She gets swept away in the thought of another child getting to find a home in their house.  Another door frame marked with the lines of her growing.  And this time Emma will be there to see it.  This time, when things get hard as their child gets older, Emma will be there to comfort Regina and they’ll help each other through instead of adding more stress.

 

Emma doesn’t notice the root sticking out until she’s tripping over it, or the ground descending in a small hill until she’s tumbling down it.  She’s yanked from her daydreaming with a grunt.  Her smile doesn’t disappear for long though when she sees that she’s feet away from those wisps of magic she needed to find.

 

She jumps back up triumphantly, grateful that nothing seems injured, and brushes herself off.  She’ll just keep this embarrassing part of her morning to herself, she thinks.  

 

The wisps are similar to the remnants of portals they’ve seen in the past, though there are far fewer of them than usual and they’re that same dull grey as earlier instead of the vivid colors they tend to find.  It’s still more evidence than she’d expected to find, and, having form, means that she doesn’t have to create more magical fog.

 

After backtracking up the hill to grab the evidence bag she’d flung aside during her fall -- and checking to make sure nothing had broken -- she makes quick work of collecting magic and soil samples to bring back to their lab.

 

By the time she gets back in her car, the sun is rising and casting a soft glow on the frosted fields between the woods and the farmhouse.  As she starts the engine to let her car warm up, her gaze turns once again to the house.  

 

The unease is still prominent.  Zelena has proven herself to Emma’s family countless times now -- she is _part_ of Emma’s family.  Emma takes a deep breath and reminds herself that Zelena has done a lot to help the town, through her skill in both midwifery and portals.  They would never have found a way to return the people who wanted to go back to their own realms without her knowledge.  The fact that this case might involve both of those things doesn’t mean her sister-in-law has relapsed.  “And I can’t do anything about it until I get some concrete evidence either way,” she says out loud.  She groans.

 

If she tells herself this enough times, maybe she’ll stop being anxious about it.

 

She sighs and pulls away from the side of the road.  One last stop at the station to give Mulan her notes, and she can go back home to her wife and their warm, soft bed.

 

* * *

 

It’s almost seven and Regina is getting coffee made when she finally hears the front door open and close and the shuffle of boots being taken off and stored in the hall closet with, she hopes, whatever jacket Emma had worn that morning.  The quiet sounds of life-as-usual coming into the kitchen and wrapping around her loosens the tightness gripping at her lungs.  She breathes deeply for the first time since she’d woken up to a cold space next to her in bed an hour ago.

 

“Emma?” she calls out, just to make sure.

 

She has become used to getting phone updates whenever Emma gets called in on the weekend, a small periodic reassurance that keep her worry from getting out of hand.  Having no idea what had been happening outside her house all morning has had her on edge.  Minutes before, she’d decided that if she hadn’t gotten a call by the time coffee had finished, she would take a thermos to the station to check in on Emma herself.

 

“Oh,” Emma says, entering the kitchen.  Her eyes are wide, clearly caught off guard by Regina’s presence, but they’re also red rimmed and she looks exhausted.

 

Her nose and cheeks are red from the early morning chill.  There are streaks of dirt across her chin and forehead.  The hair she must have put in a quick braid that morning is coming loose to give her an odd, wild halo.  

 

Any anxious grumpiness Regina had been holding onto disappears instantly upon the sight of Emma’s feral appearance.  She looks like a puppy who had accidentally wandered off and had a rough night alone in the wild.  It’s impossible to contain an adoring smile when she wants to snuggle up with her wife and never let her outside again.

 

“I didn’t think you’d be up yet.”

 

“It’s no fun sleeping in when you’re not in bed with me,” Regina says.  It earns her a dopey smiling before a yawn hits Emma full force.  “Coffee will be done soon, though maybe it’d be best if you get some more sleep.”

 

“No time for more sleep,” she says around another yawn.  She moves to lean against the counter next to Regina, and tries to stifle a third yawn.  “Oh wow.  Sorry I didn’t call, I didn’t want to wake you up.”

 

Regina feels her heart warm as she goes to the sink to wet a cloth with warm water.  When she hands it over, Emma takes it but looks confused as to what Regina is expecting from her.

 

“For your face.”

 

Emma grunts out understanding, and possibly gratitude, but proceeds to wipe the grit and tears from her eyes and leave all the dirt.  Regina huffs out an affectionate laugh and takes the cloth back.

 

She steps close, pulling a couple leaves and a twig from Emma’s hair with her free hand while she wipes her forehead clean.  “Did you have to bring the woods back home with you?”

 

Emma snorts  “They were sad that you weren’t with me,” she says.  

 

She hisses when Regina wipes at her chin.  With a closer look, Regina sees that what she had thought was dirt is recently dried blood over a shallow cut.  She picks up Emma’s hands then and tuts when she finds them scraped up as well.  This time cleaning them off elicits a whine.

 

“You’re worse than your son has ever been,” Regina says.  Emma is pouting when she looks up and she takes pity on her.  “Alright, I’ll give you ages four through six.  He was such a baby then.

 

“What on earth were you doing?  Do I need to check anywhere else?”

 

“Oh, you know me,” Emma says, lips up in a tired smile.  “Tripped over an exposed root.  Tumbled down a small hill.  I probably scraped my knees pretty good.”

 

“I’ll kiss them better after breakfast.”  Regina leans in to give her a quick kiss on the lips, then gets up to start making food.  “Eggs and toast enough for you?”

 

“It’s my turn to make breakfast.”

 

Regina looks back from opening the fridge and finds Emma leaning back heavily on the counter, her eyes closed.

 

“If I let you cook, you’ll burn breakfast,” she says and laughs at Emma’s groan.  “Are you sure you shouldn’t be going back to sleep?”

 

“I’ll be fine after some coffee.”  She winces when Regina puts an iron skillet on the stove.  “Okay, lots of coffee.”

 

Regina puts a plate with toast and fried eggs in front of Emma, who looks up at her with so much loving admiration that she feels her face heat up and can’t help the little laugh that bubbles up when she turns to grab her own plate and coffee.  Emma is moaning over her first bite when she sits down next to her.

 

“It’s not any different from what I always make,” Regina says.  

 

Emma looks at her thoughtfully while she chews.  She puts down her fork and rests her hand over Regina’s.  Regina has to fight not to lower her head bashfully and let her hair fall to hide her face from Emma’s gaze.

 

“Your food is always delicious,” Emma responds after a moment.  Then she leans over and waits for Regina to present her cheek for a kiss, which she does after rolling her eyes.  “But especially after I’ve been stumbling around in the woods for hours without breakfast.”

 

“Do I get to hear about the case?”

 

“Oh, sure, there’s nothing we need to keep from the public,” Emma says, taking another bite and continuing.  “Besides, there’s an important thing I need to run by you.”

 

Regina laughs into her coffee.  “As much as I’m dying to know all about it, I think your stomach comes before my curiosity this time.”

 

“Yes ma’am,” Emma says through another mouthful.  

 

Regina’s glare is met with a proud smile that makes Emma’s eyes light up with glee.  

 

“God, that was really great.”

 

“I’m surprised you managed to taste any of it,” Regina comments dryly while she watches Emma use her last bites of toast to clean the bits of egg still on the plate.

 

“This is my-” she counts on her fingers - ”fifth cup of coffee this morning.  And there was no food around until now.  The carbs and protein are already doing wonders for my stomach, thank you.”

 

“You’re very welcome,” Regina says.  She smiles at her before going back to her own breakfast.  “So,” she says after a bit of silence.  “Tell me about this case.”

 

“Some Merry Men found a baby abandoned in the woods.”

 

Regina gasps.  “Is it okay?”

 

“Doc says there’s nothing to worry about, and Mulan’s already working on finding her parents and why she was out there,” Emma says.  She smiles when Regina lets out a relieved breath, but the way she’s nervously playing with her fork has Regina urging her to continue.  “The thing is, there was evidence of magic at the scene and while it wasn’t clear if there’d been a portal from another realm, we can’t be sure if she’s even from here yet.  And there’s no other available foster families at the moment, but since there’s magic involved I wouldn’t want to risk having her stay with just anyone anyway.”

 

“Oh,” Regina says, catching onto Emma’s meaning.

 

“I know we both really wanted an older kid, at least to start out with,” Emma continues, clearly taking Regina’s lack of enthusiasm as disappointment when really this is all just unexpected.  “But it would be good to have her with a family who could protect her while we figure out what’s going on and we’re almost through with all the screenings and the only other real option for her is to let the fairies keep her and I’d rather not, considering how things tend to go when the fairies have infants in their care.”

 

Regina squeezes Emma’s hand before she can keep going.  Emma sucks in a quick breath and Regina is smiling at her affectionately when she looks over.

 

“I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes.  As much as both of us want to make our home available for older kids who would really benefit from a stable family and a nice home, we’re not just going to turn away an infant who needs us,” Regina says.  “Besides, it’ll be nice to have a baby living in this house again.  Even if it’s temporary.”

 

Regina wouldn’t call Emma’s smile anything but wistful.  “It really would, wouldn’t it?”

 

Emma lifts the hand still squeezing hers tight and kisses it.

 

“We’re going to have a baby!”  She shakes their grasped hands, unable to keep her joy inside.  Her smile so bright that it aches.

 

Emma laughs.  “Temporarily!” she reminds Regina, but she seems just as thrilled at the idea.

 

The last few bites of her toast forgotten, Regina slips out of her chair and beckons Emma up next to her so she can pull her into a kiss.

 

The moment their lips meet, Regina’s eyes flutter closed.  It’s a gentle kiss, a simple press of lips against lips.  Emma’s hand finds the hem of Regina’s top, trailing fingertips over the soft skin of Regina’s side as her lips and teeth and tongue caress Regina’s full bottom lip and Regina is lost.  She brings her hands up, gripping Emma’s shoulder and the base of her neck, bracing herself to keep from falling completely.

 

Thoughts of finally expanding their family fill her with warmth until it’s spilling out of her.  The sound of Emma’s voice in her head whispering reminders that this probably won’t be for long does little to contain the fullness inside.  And when she moves her hand up to touch her wife’s cheek, she feels that warmth and joy flow into her.  It leaves them both breathless, their kisses becoming short and sloppy.

 

Emma pulls back and Regina’s eyes open again.  

 

Emma’s hand comes up to brush some of Regina’s hair behind her ear.  The way she touches Regina’s cheek - the way she looks at her, her eyes soft and her lips slightly parted - is almost reverent.

 

“You’re glowing,” she says finally.  

 

It sends a different kind of heat to Regina’s face and her cheeks blush.

 

“I’m very, very happy right now,” is all that she can think to say.

 

“I love being a mom with you,” Emma says.  Her smile is wistful again and Regina wonders what kinds of things she’d thought about for the hours she’d had the news she’d just given Regina.

 

Regina sighs happily and it turns into quiet laughter as she nuzzles Emma’s cheek.

 

There was a time, when their relationship was still young, Regina’s greatest fear had been that Emma would tire of her constant need to touch and hold.  She had never had a healthy, long lasting relationship with which to compare this new one, and her mother had always told her that her clinginess was distasteful.  Yet Emma continues to soak up her affection as if Regina is the Sun and her touch is the ray of sunshine that keeps her alive.

 

Sometimes it is almost overwhelming and she worries that, should anything happen to keep her and Emma apart, she’ll cease functioning and wither away into nothingness.  It makes her cling tighter, though Emma never seems to mind.  It makes Regina think she’s finally gotten the happiness she had always wanted.

 

Pressing her forehead to Emma’s temple, she reaches up to play with the end of her braid.  She toys with the hair tie before finally pulling it free.

 

“It’s wonderful,” she says, breathing in the scent of sweat and earth that still clings to Emma’s skin.  She runs fingers through her hair, untangling the braid, until she runs into another twig.  “I love you dearly, my wonderful wife-” she laughs and holds out the offending twig for Emma to see - ”but I think you need a shower.”

 

Emma groans long enough that it turns into a whine before she runs out of air.  If she were a young Henry, Regina would expect her to stomp out of the kitchen next.  She wonders if threatening to withhold cookies would be effective and chuckles to herself when the answer to that is a definite yes.

 

“And definitely a nap.”

 

Emma pouts and it’s adorably childish.  Regina doesn’t dare to mention it.

 

“There’s one thing I didn’t think about that could be a problem,” Emma says, her pout turning into a frown.

 

“And what’s that?”

 

When Emma continues to frown, Regina takes a step back to give her some space.

 

“We don’t have any of the baby stuff we need.  It would be a horrible idea to go out and get a bunch of baby things when we probably won’t have her for longer than a week, wouldn’t it?”

 

“If that’s all you’re worried about, you shouldn’t be.”  She smiles at the way Emma’s forehead creases in confusion.  “I have all of Henry’s old baby things up in the attic.  It will take some work to reassemble them and get them looking like they used to, but I think your handywork can get it done before evening.”

 

“You’ve had all of his stuff this whole time and never told me?” she asks.  Regina can’t tell if she’s truly offended or not.

 

“Have I done anything since you started living here that would make you believe I would throw anything of Henry’s away?”

 

“That’s a very good point,” Emma says after a moment.  She takes Regina’s hand and starts walking towards the kitchen door.  “I guess that means no sleep for me.  There’s no way I have time with all this work to do.”

 

Regina stops them and looks at Emma skeptically.

 

“You must have hit your head when you took that tumble if you think I’m going to let you carry heavy objects down from the attic while you’re running on four hours of sleep and five cups of coffee.”

 

“I have magic!  No heavy lifting required,” Emma says as if that solves everything.

 

“And I remember what happened last time you attempted magic that requires that much concentration while you were too tired to stand upright.”  Emma notices how much her posture is slouching and straightens up, chin out defiantly.  “Please stop fighting this.”

 

“Fine, I’ll sleep,” she concedes and Regina finds herself standing a little taller at the victory.  “But not for too long.  I have a plan now and I need enough time.”

 

Regina leans in to kiss her again.  She smiles when she pulls back and sees the bright determination in Emma’s eyes.

 

“Alright, that sounds acceptable.  I’m going to go set up the lab, you take a shower and get napping.”  She tugs at the hand still in hers and leads Emma out the door.  “Then I can wake you up well before lunch and we can start working on the nursery.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa Ogawa is the nurse from Star Trek: Next Generation. I like adding Star Trek characters and let's be honest, Storybrooke deserves some competent medical staff. Though she probably needed some training in Earth's 'primitive' 21st century medical procedures.


	2. Chapter 2

Regina is hunched over the workbench in her lab for the second time since Emma came home that morning with vials of unknown magic and news of a mystery baby.  A mystery baby would be coming to stay with them; possibly for only a few days, possibly for as long as she wanted to be part of their family.  It's that second possibility that Regina has had to force herself not to get lost in several times today.

 

It's easy to get swept away in daydreaming about what life with a little girl might look like.  Thankfully, she also has several decades of experience making potions and learning this world's chemistry that allow her to shut off her mind to anything but the job at hand.  Making potions has become a sort of meditation for Regina.  Measuring, mixing, distilling.  Then waiting around for the slightest change and doing it all over again when the experiments inevitably fail to give her results.

 

She looks at the row of clear, pear shaped flasks with a critical eye.  No matter how long or closely she compares the solution she created with the unknown magic to its original vial, the control remains the only test that changed color.

 

Sighing, she turns off the vacuum again.  Her back cracks when she straightens up on her stool and she groans.  Emma would tell her that she needs to take a break.  Take a walk around the room, stretch, go upstairs and get a glass of water (a large one because there's no way she's been staying hydrated today).  Anything.

 

A loud bang from upstairs reminds Regina that her wife being on the other side of their home putting together baby furniture does not excuse her from taking care of herself.

 

"Taking care of myself won't tell me where the hell this magic came from," Regina mutters to herself.  She runs fingers through her hair and pulls at it as she bites her lip in thought.

 

The problem is that no matter how many years Regina has spent learning all the rules of magic in the Enchanted Forest, no matter how long she worked to commit every one of them to heart as she had her mother's lessons from her childhood, they are no good to her here.

 

Learning the strange ways her own magic works in this realm, and how to compensate for those changes, has been enough of a of a struggle.  When portals began opening from numerous realms - with a diversity of magic far beyond what she had thought possible - she'd had to toss all of that rigorous study to the side.  Finding the Author had given her a unifying Truth to work with.  As soon as people had begun coming through from the Land of Untold Stories, it was all up in the air again.

 

Regina Mills has had to start from scratch.  Every time a new portal opens.

 

At this point, she has grown very tired of trying to work out this particular puzzle.  Usually they at least have a person who can answer basic questions that give her an edge to work from.  This one has so many variables that she has spent most of the day figuring out where to even begin.

 

The front door opens just as she's feeling the desire to fireball the lab equipment.

 

"Moms?" she hears Henry yell moments after the front door slams shut again.

 

"I'm down here," she calls back, glad that she decided to leave the basement door open.  Another loud bang from upstairs tells her that Emma is listening to loud music on her phone while she works and is oblivious to Henry's arrival.

 

There's a minute before the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs and then Henry is entering the lab.

 

"Hey Mom," he says, coming close to kiss the side of Regina's head.  He's a little out of breath and his face has the same flushed look that Emma's had when she came home this morning.

 

"I thought one of Mowgli's dads were driving you home."

 

"I decided to jog home."  He shrugs as he sits down on the stool that's often filled by his other mother.  "It's nice out."

 

"And a little chilly?" she asks when she looks up from the new solution she's making.

 

His hair is blown at an angle that makes him look like he could be part of a popular boy band from the nineties and using far too much product.  The only thing keeping her from leaning over to brush it back into place is the unknown magical substance coating her gloved hand.

 

He shrugs again and Regina rolls her eyes.  She has been waiting for that age to hit where all of his responses are as short as he can make them, if they're verbal at all.  She had just hoped she'd get a couple more years until then.  They've already lived through a year of near silence, surely she deserves a break.

 

Her focus shifts back and forth between where she's measuring out ground anise seeds and watching Henry lean his elbows on the table.

 

"You're going to get holes in your shirts again if you keep doing that without a lab coat."

 

"Fine."

 

He groans, but instead of getting up and leaving the room like she expects, he puts on one of the extra coats by the door.  Smiling as she scoops out a few more milligrams of anise seed, she reminds him to grab a pair of safety glasses.  She doesn't have to look up to know he's forgotten those; he likes them less than the lab coat.

 

When he returns to his stool, she does look up.  It startles her to see how grown up he looks in lab gear.  The last time he was down here, he'd been swimming in one of those, and now Emma's coat is a little tight in his shoulders.  He takes up the same position with surprising accuracy and goes back to watching her in silence, only making a face at the smell when she adds sulfur.

 

"How's Mowgli doing?"  She tries at conversation again after carefully pouring the mixture into the soil Emma collected from the site and setting it aside.  It'll need time to settle before she can do anything with it.

 

"He's thinking about joining the cross country team next year."

 

"Oh, so there was a reason for your spontaneous afternoon job," Regina says, her smile teasing.  She looks at the other tests she already has going and makes some adjustments.

 

"Maybe."  It's quiet, muttered to the table while he toys idly with an empty beaker.

 

Regina's lips turn down at the way he's sulking.  She has very little doubt that their news will cheer him up, but thinking about his behavior lately, she worries if maybe they've missed something going on.  The sulking is new and he hadn't seemed any less excited than usual at the prospect of a sleepover at his friend's house, but he has been more quiet.  Regina isn't sure how long ago she started to notice.  A week?  This couldn't possibly have gone on for a month.

 

She adjusts a clamp closer to him so she can watch him out of the corner of her eye.  Emma would probably say that it will be better for him not having someone he's related to around all the time.  And maybe she's right.  But as frustrating as it can be at time to have Snow White as a mother-in-law, Regina stresses less knowing Snow is around if he needs someone at school.  She'll miss having that when he starts high school and finally leaves Storybrooke Academy behind.

 

She takes off her gloves and turns to give her son her full attention.

 

"There's no shame in wanting to do something because your friend wants to do it, as long as you think you'll enjoy it.  And it's not drugs or going to get tattoos or anything like that," she adds quickly, wondering if she just told her son he has her blessing to give into peer pressure.

 

Henry laughs at that and she smiles, putting a hand over his.

 

"I'm happy you've found a good friend who seems to enjoy spending time with you."  She squeezes his hand.  "It can be isolating being the son of the mayor and the sheriff.  It was hard enough making friends as a little girl in the Enchanted Forest when my parents were nobility, I can't imagine what it's like to deal with that as a middle schooler."

 

Henry gives her a wry smile, seeing straight through her.  "Having Mowgli around has been awesome, I'm really glad his family decided to stay here.  It's not that I've been isolated really - I'm still hanging out with the Tillmans and Paige is fine, I guess.  It's just that..." he pauses and makes a face while he thinks.  Then another loud crash sounds through the vents, making them both jump and look up at the ceiling.  He seizes the opportunity to change the subject.  "What on earth is Ma doing upstairs?"

 

Regina continues to look up for a moment, hoping Emma can feel her glare through two levels of the house.

 

"New case.  Emma got called in this morning," she says, but his raised eyebrow tells her that he doesn't see how the two connect.  "She's doing a bit of a project that's related to the case.  There's actually something that I need to talk to you about."

 

"It's nothing bad, is it?"

 

"There's nothing bad, I promise."  She puts her hand on Henry's shoulder, rubbing it, then pulls out her phone to set a timer.  "I've done everything I can down here for now.  How about we go check up on your mom and see how her little project is going?"

 

"What's this project about?"

 

Henry mirrors Regina, getting up and taking the lab coat off so he can hang it back up and follow her upstairs.

 

"You're still alright with us adopting more children?" she asks, suddenly having second thoughts.  The last time this family changed, it almost broke apart irreparably.  And now they want to take in another child as if that won't be a nearly impossible adjustment for a boy who has been an only child for thirteen years.

 

Any doubt vanishes with his beaming grin.

 

He rushes the few steps to her and pulls her into the tightest hug she's had in months.  Air rushes out of her in a gasp and makes her laugh sound giddy.  Her arms wrap around him like it's a reflex she couldn't stop if she wanted to.  And when she leans her head against the top of his, the happiness that she still can comes out in a sigh.

 

"So you're still okay with this?"

 

"Are you kidding?  I can't wait to be a big brother!"  He pauses, suddenly remembering that he might not be.  They'd discussed wanting their family to be home for anyone who needed it, even if they were already in high school.  "They are younger than me, right?"

 

"Yes, much younger.  Actually -"

 

"Wait," he says, cutting her off.  "Ma's already preparing the room?  Did all the paperwork finally go through?  She said the other day that it was still tied up in bureaucratic shi- stuff."

 

"Nice save."  Her narrowed eyes don't hold much sting when she can't seem to keep a smile off her lips.  "Actually," she tries again and starts leading him up the stairs.  "It's not an adoption yet, or even fostering.  The call Emma got this morning was because they found a baby in the woods."

 

"A  _baby_?"  She looks over her shoulder to see his eyes go wide.  "You always said you didn't want another baby."

 

"It's not that we wouldn't  _want_ a baby, Henry," she says, wringing her hands together as she enters the main floor.  She waits for him to join her so they can walk side by side.  "It's simply that there will always be people who want to adopt babies, but a lot of children will go without a stable family while they grow up."

 

"You want to help kids who are going through stuff like Ma did?"

 

She inhales deeply.  Emma has sworn several times that doesn't blame Regina for her parents' decision to send her here and Regina will never regret any role she may have played in it, no matter how much Emma's childhood saddens her.  What she can do is keep as many children out of that situation as possible in the present.

 

"That's a lot of it.  We have a wonderful family and this big house," she says, taking Henry's hand.  "And both of us would love nothing more than to give other kids who need help the family that neither of us had."

 

They stop before going up the stairs that will lead them to Emma and the look of adoration and... pride? on Henry's face makes Regina feel warm and light.  She reaches up to ruffle his hair and he pulls her into another tight hug a moment later.

 

"You're an awesome mom, Mom," Henry says, his head still resting on Regina's shoulder.

 

That overflowing warmth comes back.  She closes her eyes tightly to keep in the tears that feel imminent.  Resting her cheek on the top of his head, she smooths her hand over his hair.

 

"You make it pretty easy," she says in a whisper.  The she pushes him back, hands gripping each shoulder, and smiles gently.  "Before you get too excited, I want you to know that we don't know if this baby has a family who can take care of her or not."

 

"Oh."

 

"We don't know much about what happened to her yet, except that there was magic involved.  But-" she starts to climb the remaining stairs - "we've agreed to take her in while we help Mulan solve the case.  We have the room and the time, so we think it's the right thing to do.  But it may only be for a week."

 

"So we should do our best not to get attached?"

 

"I think that's what your mother is hoping for, but I'm not sure that's how these things work."

 

After taking a moment, his face scrunched up in thought, he says, "I hope we get to keep her."

 

"We all want to have another child, Henry, but I don't think wishing away whatever family she might have who already love her is prioritizing her needs," she says.  She rubs his shoulder in understanding.  "I've had similar thoughts more than once already, and I know it will be on all our minds throughout the next week.  We just have to remember that finding out what's best for her is what we need to focus on, even if the outcome isn't what would make us happiest."

 

He's quiet as they walk up the last few stairs, thinking about Regina's words.  When they pause outside the nursery door, he smiles and her again and takes her hand.

 

"That makes sense."

 

Regina smiles down at him before she places another kiss on top of his hair.  Then she wraps an arm around his middle and they enter the room she had decided would work best as a nursery.

 

It is one of the smallest rooms in the mansion and she had never known what to do with it.  It's too small to make a suitable office, especially with her study downstairs.  With two other spare rooms already set up for guests, it had seemed a waste of space to turn this one into a third when she had never expected guests in the first place.  For a time it had become a second library, where she kept books she read to better understand this world.  As Henry aged and began to outgrow everything she bought for him, the room had slowly turned into a sort of shrine to Henry's childhood.  The bookshelves housed just as many picture books as romance novels and historical texts, and his early attempts at writing filed away neatly next to various maps.

 

After breakfast, they had made short work of the books and shelves.  A flick of the wrist and some concentrated thinking and they were packed into boxes and stored away in the attic.  Regina had suggested doing similar to put together the old baby furniture, but after a quick nap, Emma had gotten it into her head that she needed to do this 'the proper way' and Regina could do nothing to talk her out of it.

 

"Wow," Henry says as he steps inside the room.

 

The walls are a soft yellow, scattered with adorable stencils of clouds and stars in green and white and pink.  This much at least must have been done with magic.  While it would be far simpler to magic away the traces of an afternoon painting, Emma could not have had the time to paint this whole room.  Especially when the lone unfinished dresser Emma is currently working on would suggest that the rest of the room had been done 'the proper way.'  Regina is impressed.  Almost every piece of furniture, down to the rocking chair tucked back into a corner, has been expertly put back together.  The beautiful cherrywood is shining with a recent polish and fits well against the yellow walls.

 

Finally noticing her family, Emma takes out her earbuds and smiles at them.  Her face is bright and flushed with the effort of an afternoon filled with magical and manual labor.  Regina's decision to leave a pair of tight jeans and a white tank top out for Emma to work in after her nap was the right one.  She is finding it difficult to keep her eyes away from where Emma's arm muscles continue to flex while she fidgets with the hammer she's holding.

 

"Do you like it?" Emma asks.

 

"I thought you said this was going to be temporary?" Henry asks her as he takes in all the work Emma has done.  It's certainly more than Regina had expected.

 

Emma chuckles nervously.  "Well," she starts, then pauses as if trying to think through her argument.  "Here's the thing.  We already had all the furniture, yeah?  And I figure, as long as we're already putting all that together, a little magic to make the place more baby friendly isn't a bad thing.  And this way, even if this girl goes back to her family soon, we'll have a nursery set up for whenever we get to adopt.  We were just using the room for storage anyway."

 

"Very logical," Regina says.  Emma grins.

 

"Do you like it?"

 

"It's pretty," Henry says, tracing a finger along the outline of a cloud.

 

"It's beautiful," Regina agrees.  She pulls Emma close and kisses her quickly on the lips.  "You're very handy."

 

"I can show you just how handy later, if you'd like," Emma says in a whisper against Regina's ear.  Regina gasps before letting out a laugh and pinching her side.

 

"Ew moms!"  Henry is looking thoroughly disgusted at them.  He moves away, putting distance between them before they can say anything else he doesn't want to hear.  "Innocent ears in the room."

 

"The words you almost said downstairs tell me otherwise," Regina says.  Henry's head whips back up from where he'd begun studying the crib, a look of betrayal clear on his face.

 

Emma gasps and looks between them.

 

"Did you swear in front of your mother?"

 

"She said 'almost!'" Henry says the same moment Regina says, "he was just repeating something you told him."

 

"I can't believe you're getting me in trouble with your Mom!"

 

Regina laughs at that.  It bubbles over in a giggle and they both turn to look at her as if they've never heard the sound before.  When she rolls her eyes this time, it's out of fondness.  Her family is ridiculous and adorable and she loves them dearly for it.

 

"It's not like I'm going to make you sleep on the couch for it, darling," Regina soothes.  She kisses her wife's pouting lip, her hand stroking down a bare arm when she leans in.  When Emma sets the hammer she's still holding on top of the dresser, muscles move under Regina's fingers and she makes an appreciative noise into the kiss.  Taking a step back to better admire the arm she's holding, watching her wife flex purposefully in an attempt to impress her, Regina grins.  "Though I may find you more things to hammer."

 

The doorbell rings and they all freeze.

 

'The baby is here' is all Regina can think.  Emma stills halfway through pulling Regina back to her for another kiss.  Henry straightens up in the far corner where he'd just opened the toy chest to once again avoid his mothers being disgustingly affectionate.  Their eyes are the only things that move as they look at each other, sharing the same thought.

 

The baby is here.  She is going to depend on them to protect her and take care of her, for every little thing.  But they're the protectors of an entire town.  They battle monsters and power hungry magical beings on a regular basis.  They can handle a three month old child.  Emma smiles at her and Regina feels her heart start beating again.

 

And then Henry sprints from the room, breaking the spell with an 'I got it!' thrown over his shoulder.

 

Emma's smile widens, the corners of her eyes crinkling.  She pulls Regina those remaining inches still separating them.  She kisses her cheek.  The tip of her nose.  "I love you.  We got this," she says, then places a hand on either side of Regina's face to angle her head down, kisses the top of her head.  "Breathe," she whispers.

 

Regina closes her eyes and breathes deeply through her nose.  She inhales the scent of wood and sweat and polish that clings to Emma, fascinated by the differences from that morning.  The sound of Henry and David talking floats up from the foyer and Regina releases her breath.  She lets it go slowly even when every muscle in her body is straining to rush down the steps.

 

She lets the feeling of being surrounded by Emma ground her.  When she opens her eyes, Emma is looking at her with such overwhelming adoration that Regina can't do anything but close the small space between their faces and kiss her.

 

The moment doesn't last long.  Henry calling out for them pulls them apart just as Regina is reaching out a hand to caress Emma's cheek and bring her closer.  Now is not the time to linger, she knows, but she still sighs heavily at the loss.

 

The sound of David hushing Henry greets them as they leave the nursery, so they take the stairs as quietly as they can manage.  They arrive in the foyer to find David holding a baby carrier, the little girl sound asleep in it.  

 

"Is this her?" Regina asks as they reach the bottom of the stairs.

 

"This is our mystery girl," David says.

 

He holds up the baby carrier to give them a better look.  Regina isn't sure what she'd expected, but seeing a child who seems healthy and peaceful makes breathing a little easier.  The only physical evidence she can see of the previous night's trauma is the angry, red cut on her cheek.  While Emma had warned her of the injury earlier, seeing it makes her heart sting.  Realistically, Regina knows that being abandoned for hours leaves more than mere physical scarring, but she prays that any other ailments are as easy for her to heal as a cut.

 

Emma comes up behind her, wrapping her arms around her wife and son's shoulders.  Regina melts into the touch as they gather around close.  She knows they should probably give her space, and they should definitely be more quiet, but they can't see to help their whispered exclamations at every little adorable thing the notice.

 

"She was awake earlier and a bit fussy, but it seems like car rides are good for sleeping.  They were the only thing that worked when Neal started teething."

 

Regina's attention is pulled away from the baby and she sees David smiling, lost in baby Neal nostalgia.  She bats Emma's hands away when she catches her reaching out for the sleeping child.

 

"Better or worse than the terrible twos?"  David laughs.  "I suppose we should let you come all the way into the house."

 

"Actually, she has some things in the car," he says, handing Regina the baby carrier.  "If Emma can help me with that, we can talk shop and then I'll be out of your hair."

 

Regina's relationship with the man has improved a great deal, but she is not about to protest when he's the one offering to leave.  Especially when she has a baby to settle into her home.

 

At Emma's nod, Regina turns to Henry.

 

"To the kitchen.  Shall we?"

 

"We're not eating her, are we?" Emma says.  Regina looks over her shoulder and sees that teasing twinkle in her eyes.

 

"Wrong fairytale witch, dear."

 

"Good one Mom."  

 

Henry bumps shoulders with her before hurrying off ahead to get to the kitchen first, Emma's laughter following after them.  Regina finds him already up on one of the stools by the counter when she catches up.  She ruffles his hair and sets the carrier down in front of him.

 

"What do you think?"

 

"She's cute," he says.  A smile flickers on his face while he continues to study her.  "It could be nice to have a little sister, even if it's weird that she's so tiny."

 

"You used to be tiny," she says, tickling him a little under his ribs.  He giggles and lets out a defensive 'hey!' before she can stop.  "We're going to wake her up if we're not careful."

 

"I won't make as much noise if you don't tickle me."

 

They stick their tongues out at each other and giggle again.  Both of them look back at the baby, a little worried, but she hasn't budged. 

 

Watching the baby as she sleeps on, Regina is amazed that she can manage it; entering a new house and being surrounded by new, excited people who can't seem to stop cooing over her.  Henry had woken at the smallest disturbance for the first several months.  And here she is with a mother and son hovering over her, counting her tiny fingers and gushing over her cuteness, and she is blissfully unaware of it all.

 

Regina leans her head against Henry's.  She tries to reel in her smile before her cheeks begin to ache, but she knows that's hopeless at this point.  Smiling has been the new normal for her face muscles since Henry moved back home with her.  Since the first time Emma had kissed her.  Since they'd gotten married.  Not the evil, cackling smile she'd used for years and decades.  This is happiness.  Regina Mills is content and hopeful and happy.  The ache in her cheeks and her heart feels good, and she isn't sure she'll ever get used to that being normal.

 

She looks over the small child - her tiny feet covered in a striped onesie, the dark wisp of a curl peeking out from under a matching hat - and she thinks that she's already fallen a bit in love.

 

"Mom?"

 

She turns to him and he's looking at her with a curious head tilt.

 

"Hmm?"

 

"Are you okay?"

 

The question makes her aware of the tear trickling down her cheek.  She laughs and wipes it away.

 

"I'm fine."  She nods.  Then continues at his raised, disbelieving eyebrow.  "I'm happy.  Incredibly happy.  She's here-" she makes to grasp a tiny foot but stops, her hand hovering awkwardly until she decides to take Henry's hand instead - "and it feels like everything is falling into place."

 

"But it's-"

 

"Temporary, yes," Regina finishes for him.  She squeezes his hand.  "But don't you think that it might be best if we treat her like family while she's here, no matter what happens later?"

 

Because if it comes down to having to protect her with magic against a threat, their love could only make that stronger.  Though another part of Regina - a part that has never felt the need to make excuses for her feelings - scoffs at the thought of denying herself the happiness that is sleeping right in front of her.

 

"Sure Mom," Henry says.  He's giving her a knowing look.  "I'm gonna grab my book."

 

"You don't have to start researching right now."

 

"I know, but a sleeping baby is kind of boring after a while."

 

He makes a face, as if to say 'girls and babies are weird,' but is wise enough to keep silent.  Regina chuckles and shoos him out of the kitchen.  She continues to watch the doorway after he leaves, but Emma is still out of sight.

 

Turning her attention back to the sleeping baby, she worries over the scratch again.  Doc may have said it was shallow and would heal fine on its own, but that doesn't mean that Regina has to overlook it.  It's red and clearly irritated and must be causing discomfort, if not pain.  Besides, while helping Emma improve her magical abilities, Regina has had the opportunity to work on healing magic for the first time in her life.

 

She's not about to ignore an infant's discomfort when there is something she can do about it.  And all the positive emotions bubbling through her right now are bound to help.  She fills herself with all the care she already feels for this child.  Focusing that energy into her hand, she cups the wounded cheek and hovers her thumb over the cut.  The cheek is soft and it doesn't take long for the rough, inflamed skin she's healing to return to its original state.

 

"There we go," Regina says, stroking the cheek one last time before removing her hand.  "Good as new."

 

Little eyelashes flutter open and big, dark eyes look up at her.  Regina is entranced.  She knows that this is the first time the baby has seen her, that cannot be recognition she sees in those bright, happy eyes.  But she wants to believe that the magic Regina used to heal her has already become familiar.

 

All Regina can manage is a smile.  The baby mirrors it before it quickly becomes a yawn.  Then she's smiling again and letting out squeals of delight as Regina strokes her other cheek and touches her nose.  Hands and feet flail, and Regina feels her heart lighten because perhaps this little girl has gotten through the past twenty four hours mostly unharmed after all.

 

"She's awake!" Henry says, dumping his book on the counter and hopping up on his stool.  Regina hadn't even noticed him come back in the kitchen.

 

He smiles at them, then opens his book immediately and starts flipping through the pages.  Since the Author's powers had passed to him, Henry has taken to the role with pride and enthusiasm.  Sometimes though, Regina worries that it's all far too much responsibility for a thirteen year old boy.

 

"Wouldn't you rather do something else for awhile?"

 

"I have an idea I need to check," he says.  He doesn't look up until he's asked about it.  "Okay, what do you think: a lost princess, prophesied to vanquish an evil sorceress and hidden away until she was ready to fulfill her destiny.  But she's found and banished into our realm!"

 

She smiles.  He certainly has an impressive imagination.  And her dramatic flare.

 

"I don't think I'm familiar with that story."

 

"Are you kidding me?  It's a classic!" 

 

He sounds offended but goes back to his book without any further explanation.  It's far fetched, but Regina looks the baby over with a far more critical eye.  These children always seem to be physically marked in some way - bizarre scarring or a distinctive birthmark.  This child doesn't seem to have any of those that she can see, and she trusts Doc or Ogawa would have looked her over thoroughly and put any findings in the report.  If there's anything Storybrooke knows how to deal with, it would be a baby with a destiny.

 

"What do you think, are you a princess?" she asks anyway.  The baby, who had been watching her in silent wonder while she talked to her son, shrieks again at the possibility.  Regina picks her up to get a better look at her and she laughs.  "You are?  Well, hello Princess."  She brings the baby close to press a kiss on her cheek.  "You'll fit right in here, though we try not to make too big a deal about the royalty thing.  And we do everything we can to kick destiny in the butt, if you have one of those."

 

Regina holds her close, inhaling the scent of the baby's little, hat covered head.  It relaxes her, having a baby to hold.  She had forgotten how much.  Neal and Ro hadn't been the same, with all the family drama that surrounded them.  Holding Kathryn's child had felt like this.  And even though no one will ever compare to being able to cuddle Henry after a long, repetitive day, she is going to enjoy having this again.  Getting to dance with a baby again, swaying her back and forth.

 

She turns slightly and catches sight of Emma standing just inside the doorway, watching them.

 

Emma's smile is soft and adoring.  It's the smile she tends to have whenever she's watching Regina interact with the family's babies or their friends' small children.  It's the smile that started to make Regina think that they might want the same things and ultimately led them here.  She smiles back, but before she can take a step towards her, Emma has crossed the short distance to her.

 

There's a kiss on her cheek, a hand sliding across the small of her back to turn her slightly.  Then she feels Emma press into her back and wrap her arms around her.  She relaxes even more into the strong body behind her.  This is something she never had when Henry was a baby and she doesn't think she'll mind the change.

 

"My wife has been spying on us," she tells the baby in a fake whisper.  Emma snorts.  "I'm not sure if we can trust her with your secret princess destiny."

 

"Hey, I'm totally trustworthy!" Emma says.

 

"Mocking my theory isn't very nice," Henry says.  

 

They seem to be equally offended and Regina smirks into the baby's hat.

 

"How long were you standing over there watching us then?" she asks Emma.

 

Emma seems to think about it for a moment.  "A bit," is the best she can come up with.  Regina thinks about telling her off for not announcing herself sooner but then there are lips trailing down her neck and she decides against it.  Soon enough, those lips have left her neck and the baby is laughing up a storm.

 

"Are you making faces at her?"  Her question is answered by Emma blowing a raspberry against her neck and an even louder laugh.  Regina gasps.  "I can't believe you're trying to steal away this child's affection by playing dirty."

 

"You're the one who called me a spy!"

 

"You're both super weird," Henry says. He doesn't look up from his book. "I'm so glad I'm adopted."

 

Emma takes a step back so Regina can see her fond eye roll and then then she's off to drag him into family time.  By the time she pulls him away from his book, Regina is cradling the baby so she's facing them.

 

"Hi baby," Emma says, her voice sweet as she gets close enough to reach her hand out and tickle the baby's tummy.  "Do you remember me?"

 

The baby giggles in response and struggles to reach out for Emma's fingers.  When they finally touch, it seems to surprise both of them.  They lock eyes, both awe-struck as Emma runs her thumb over tiny baby knuckles and fingernails.  Regina thinks for a moment about handing her the girl so she can rush upstairs to find the camera, but a quick glance at Henry reminds her how difficult it's been to get him away from his phone lately.  He's already snapping pictures.  It will make documenting these next few days easy.

 

"You probably don't," Emma continues when she finds her voice again.  She lets go of the baby's hand to stroke one of those soft, round cheeks that Regina already knows are irresistible.  The baby leans into the touch and Emma's smile beams.  "It was very early and you were sleeping like a normal person, weren't you.  You didn't notice the weird zombie person hovering over your bed.  It's probably for the best."

 

Henry lowers his phone as the baby starts gurgling.  Coming closer to Emma's other side, he sticks out his finger for the baby to grab like he'd seen his mom do.

 

"I'm Henry.  I get to be your big brother for a bit.  Or maybe longer, I guess," he says.  He looks at his mothers.  "What are we gonna name her?  We can't just keep calling her 'baby.'  That's weird."

 

"She most likely already has a name, Henry."

 

He pouts, most likely already coming up with a list of his favorites.  Emma nudges him.  "If you really want to name something so badly, we'll get you a pet."  Regina raises an eyebrow because this is certainly not something they'd agreed on yet.  "I meant like a hamster or a fish or something," she says, then turns back to the baby.  "Anyway, I think your mom had a great idea."

 

They all look at her expectantly.  Even the baby seems to.

 

"Princess," she says.

 

*

 

Of course, having an infant around hadn't remained blissful for long.  They had already been through one bout of hungry crying.  She had finished the bottle David brought with her and fallen asleep hours ago, and now Regina and Emma are snuggled up together in bed.  They've been talking about the case and what Henry was like as a baby and finally getting to have some quiet time together.  Then a piercing cry comes from the nursery.

 

"Already?" Emma whines as they untangle themselves and get out of bed.  "It hasn't even been three hours.  I thought babies were supposed to sleep through the night at this point."

 

"It depends on the baby," Regina says.  She puts on her bathrobe and rushes into the next room.  She knows that part of the reason she wanted to turn the room next to theirs into the nursery was to make sure the baby's cries would wake them, but opening the door, she can tell that the wall between their rooms did very little to dull the high pitched sound.  Hopefully Henry hadn't fallen asleep yet, because she's certain this would wake him up and it's too late now to put a silencing spell around his room.

 

Emma is right behind her, holding her sheriff's badge.  Regina gives her a questioning look.  She shrugs.  "It was the first shiny thing I saw when I got out of bed."

 

Rolling her eyes at her wife, Regina scoops Princess out of her crib.  She looks at Emma expectantly; it only takes her a moment to catch on and start wiggling her badge around close to the baby's face.  For a moment, it seems like it's going to work.  Princess takes a deep breath and holds it, reaching out her hand like she wants to play with the badge.

 

But it's no use.  Princess bats the badge away and begins crying harder.  Emma slumps in defeat.  She whines about that being her only idea - as if she hadn't watched her brother several times while he was an infant and done just fine.

 

Springing to action, Regina places the still screaming child in Emma's arms.  She digs through a bag of supplies that David left them and pulls out a nipple-less bottle.  Nothing else she needs is with it.

 

Leave it to the Charmings to not have all the feeding supplies together in one easy to reach section.

 

"You think she's hungry?" Emma asks, voice loud enough to be heard over the wailing child.

 

"It's the only thing that makes sense.  I doubt much else would wake her up.  Try walking around with her, it might help her calm down," Regina says.  She continues digging through the bag and has little luck locating what she needs.

 

The moment Emma starts walking, taking exaggerated, bouncy steps, Princess stills in surprise.  But as soon as she realizes that Emma doesn't have a bottle, she cries again.  Regina sends a sympathetic smile her way and searches one last pocket for the formula.  She knows she should have started putting this all together right after Princess fell asleep, but they had been so exhausted and the idea of snuggling up in bed had been far too tempting.  She remembers how difficult Henry's first several days had gone; the stress it had put on both of them.  There's going to be an adjustment period for this child as well but she's hoping it won't last the entire time they have her in their home.

 

She gives a triumphant shout when she finally finds everything she needs, startling both Emma and the baby as they walk around the small room.  The sight of Emma stopped mid-bounce and Princess mid-scream, both of them wide-eyed, is both amusing and endearing.  Regina finds herself smiling as she starts preparing the bottle.  Thankfully, now that she has all the pieces, all it takes is a flick of the wrist.

 

Emma looks about ready to burst into tears when Regina comes over with it.

 

She has Emma place the still crying girl into her waiting arms, and she accepts the bottle the moment Regina has it in front of her mouth.

 

"There you go, Princess," Regina coos and starts rocking her slightly.  She sees Emma breathe out a heavy sigh in relief and drop down into the rocking chair.  "Were you hungry?  Did you catch us woefully unprepared?  We'll have to work on that won't we.  But you're still adorable, so it wasn't too bad."

 

"Not quite as adorable when she's screaming in my ear."

 

Regina laughs at her grumbling.  When she walks up to her, Emma is happy to let her sit in her lap, though she does make a comment about needing to put another chair in here.  Leaning back against Emma's shoulder, she kisses Emma's temple.

 

"You did very well," Regina says.  She continues to watch the baby as she eats, but looks up when Emma snorts her disbelief.  "Do you really think I would give you false praise?  I mean it.  It takes time to figure out what a baby needs and when.  This isn't going to be a perfect, cozy week of domestic bliss."

 

She feels all of Emma's air leave her lungs at that news.  "But you knew exactly what needed to be done.  It all comes so naturally for you."

 

It's Regina's turn to snort.

 

"Clearly you misheard a great deal about my abilities when I first got Henry.  And don't undersell yourself, darling," she says.  She kisses Emma's cheek, then turns enough for their eyes to meet.  Emma gives her a weak, uncertain smile.  "Don't think that I'm better than you when I'm working from years of experience that you don't have, it won't help either of us.  You remember how things were with Neal.  Your whole family had a lot to learn because none of you had any real experience with infants, but you all got there - even you - and he's doing wonderfully now."

 

"Do you remember how surprised we all were when we discovered how useful Dad's shepherding skills turned out to be?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henry's baby theory is referencing Willow (1988). Given Regina's enjoyment of Lucasfilms movies from the 80s, it's hard to believe that she's never seen it. She probably did, but felt greatly offended by Queen Bavmorda's story #JusticeForEvilQueens


	3. Chapter 3

Unlike the previous morning, and the last three times throughout the night, this time Emma wakes gradually. There is sun on her back, wrapping her in warmth.  Regina's foot is rubbing up and down her calf and pulls her gently from a pleasant dream.

 

 

Emma is smiling before she even opens her eyes.

 

 

And when her eyes open, her smile only gets bigger.  A couple of feet across from her, Regina is lying on her side with Princess sitting propped up against her chest.  The little girl who couldn't stop crying all night looks delighted by her presence and it makes Emma's insides turn to mush.

 

 

"Hi Princess."  She reaches out to wiggle the girl's onesie-clad foot.  Princess gurgles happily in response.  "Is someone finally in a good mood?"

 

 

Getting through the night had been a hell that Emma didn't think she would ever survive.  She has certainly fought her share of fairytale baddies who had been less formidable than this kid's lung capacity.  Now here she is, playful and smiling and looking far too adorable in her blue onesie covered in little green alligators.

 

 

"Good morning, Emma," Regina says.

 

 

She's waving a chubby little baby hand at Emma, and Princess lets out a squeal of delight.  But it doesn't take long for her to grow bored and start grabbing at the hand still playing with her foot.  Emma is happy to let her have it; anything that keeps her from crying is good in Emma's book.

 

 

Of course, she wasn't expecting her fingers to become a chew toy.

 

 

"It's so strange!" she says, her face scrunched up.

 

 

She is never going to get used to the feeling of little gums gnawing on her hand.  Though she supposes Princess will start teething soon enough and then she'll probably wish for this again.

 

 

She frowns at herself.  She isn't supposed to be getting attached.  After a restless night full of waking up to feed a crying child, she had expected to be well over the desire to have a baby staying with them for anything more than short term.  And yet, here she is thinking about this kid's future with them.

 

 

Regina nudges her leg with a foot and Emma looks up to find her watching with a knowing smile.

 

 

"What's going on in that head of yours?"

 

 

"Um, I was just..."  She shrugs as much as she can with a tiny mouth latched onto her finger.  The movement makes Princess grunt.  "How have you not fallen in love with her?"

 

 

Regina's face softens with understanding.

 

 

"Oh Emma."  She laughs but the sound is gentle and loving and spreads through Emma like a second sun is warming her.  "Of course I have.  I would have found it unusual for you if you hadn't gotten attached already."

 

 

"But we probably won't get to keep her."

 

 

The way Regina laughs at her pout is far less gentle.

 

 

"We've spent so much time talking and thinking about having more children lately that it makes sense to me."  Shifting to free a hand, Regina runs her fingers through Princess's soft curls, then strokes them along Emma's arm.  "I don't see there being any harm in it.  It will help us be better guardians for her no matter how long she's with us.  And then we'll see what happens."

 

 

Emma gets her finger back and Regina rolls her eyes before she's even able to wipe it off on the sheet.  She does it anyway and gives Regina a cheeky grin when she sighs.  That sigh that says she can't believe she wanted to put up with this for the rest of her life.

 

 

It's one of Emma's favorite sounds.

 

 

When a hint of a smile plays on Regina's lips, Emma lifts herself up on her arms so she can kiss first her wife, then the baby, on the nose.  She lies back down and laughs when she's met with identical bright eyed smiles.

 

 

"Thank you for that," Emma says.  She rolls to her side to see them better and begins tracing patterns with a finger along Regina's arm and Princess's tummy.  "I think it will help."

 

 

"Of course, darling."

 

 

The love she sees in the way Regina looks at her makes her stomach swoop.  She's pretty sure she can feel her face heating up in a blush.  And when she feels Regina's feet begin to rub against hers, starting up a game of footsie under the sheets, there's no fighting the flush she feels spread across her face and chest.

 

 

She looks down at the baby, still sitting happily at Regina's chest, and back up at Regina.  She raises an eyebrow.

 

 

Does she really want to do this here?

 

 

Now?

 

 

With the kid in between them?

 

 

Regina's smile turns into a smirk, making Emma's stomach swoop in an entirely different way.

 

 

"Come here and kiss me, wife," she says, nudging Emma's leg again and her grin a little wicked.  She's clearly not feeling the same discomfort as Emma.

 

 

A little kissing can't scar a baby too badly, Emma thinks.  She scoots close again, careful not to knock her arm against Princess, and kisses her wife.

 

 

The kiss is hesitant at first, Emma still nervous that they'll end up squishing the baby somehow.  It quickly turns playful when Regina nips at her lip.  Regina lets out a breathy laugh at Emma's gasp.  And soon they're both laughing between short, wet kisses.

 

 

After two years, there are still times when Emma can't believe this is her life.  This is what it's like to live with Regina; to love her and kiss her.  It's playful and happy and there's a lightness to it that the Emma who first came to Storybrooke never could have dreamed possible.  The Emma who constantly struggled against her feelings towards a woman she had only perceived as cold would never have let herself imagine how that woman's skin glows in the morning sun streaming through their bedroom window.  How warm and soft it feels under her lips.

 

 

Joy rushes through her at the gasp that leaves Regina's lips.  Emma chuckles as she kisses the corner of her mouth.  She knows how light touches on Regina's ears drive her wild.  She savors the way Regina's breath hitches as she trails a finger around the edge of her ear and kisses along her jaw.

 

 

She no longer remembers the image she'd had of her future when she first met this little family, but now she can't imagine wanting anything but this.

 

 

Though her perfect world probably wouldn't have included their little morning make out ending when a tiny hand grabs her breast.

 

 

Emma yelps as she falls back onto her side of the bed.  She should have expected something like this to happen.

 

 

She can't believe Regina is laughing at her.

 

 

"Aww Princess, those breasts are not for you!" Regina coos at the baby as she continues to reach for Emma.

 

 

It looks for a moment like she's on the verge of crying again.  Her little hands are clenched into fists and her lip is jutting out in a deep pout.  She's sucking in a deep breath to hold - just like Emma's become all too familiar with Neal's tantrums - when Regina picks her up and swings her in the air.

 

 

"Those breasts are just for me," she says.

 

 

If it hadn't been weird hearing Regina do babytalk already, hearing it with those words is definitely breaking Emma's brain a bit.

 

 

Regina brings Princess down so she can kiss all over her face and Emma can't help joining in their laughter.

 

 

"Yes they are," Regina says between kisses.  "Yes they are!"

 

 

In an attempt to settle her down, Regina holds the kid up in a sitting position on her chest.  Making silly faces and noises while bouncing her distracts her from being cranky over the loss of Emma's boob, but she still seems a little fussy.

 

 

"Is she hungry?"

 

 

"She shouldn't be, I fed her less than an hour ago."

 

 

"Did she drink the whole bottle this time?"

 

 

Regina sighs.

 

 

"No, still only about half.  If she's still not eating enough by the end of the day, I think I'll give Nurse Ogawa a call," she says as she rubs a hand up and down Princess's back.  "I know I'm probably overthinking this because Doc wouldn't have cleared her to stay with us if she's ill, but I'd like to check in.  Just in case."

 

 

She looks over at Emma then, her face in a frown that's begging for reassurance.  That's all Emma needs to move close, turning on her side so her chest brushes Regina's arm.  Regina's lips pull into a hesitant smile and Emma kisses them gently.  She settles against her, legs entwined together and head resting on Regina's shoulder so she can see Princess better.

 

 

"I agree.  It wouldn't hurt to call, especially if it eases your anxiety about her health."

 

 

They both watch as the baby's eyes slip shut and she slumps a little in Regina's hands.

 

 

"I think being awake half the night has finally caught up with her," Emma whispers.

 

 

Regina slowly moves the little girl until she's lying on her chest, then begins stroking her back again.

 

 

"I think you're right."

 

 

"It helps that she finds your hands safe and comforting.  I'd be conked out in that position too."

 

 

Regina's quiet laughter rumbles through her chest and makes Emma smile.

 

 

They lie together in silence.  Regina's hands don't move from the baby on her chest, but Emma trails her fingers idly over the soft arm she's claimed as her pillow.  The thought of both she and the kid using Regina as a pillow really does have her contemplating the pros and cons of falling back asleep.

 

 

The only serious con she can come up with is that she would probably cut off circulation to Regina's arm if she stayed like this for too long.

 

 

She doesn't get much further in her list when Regina sighs.

 

 

"Did Henry seem... moody to you at all yesterday?"

 

 

Emma wonders how long she has had that thought churning around in her head.  She gets up slowly, careful not to jostle Regina and wake Princess, and situates herself so she's sitting cross-legged so she can look down into Regina's eyes.  The worry in them has Emma reaching out to rub her shoulder.

 

 

"Nah.  He seemed more enthusiastic than anything else."  Emma pauses to think back on the past week or so.  Nothing about his behavior struck her as different than usual.  Certainly nothing to hint at him experiencing some kind of angst or anything more serious.  His good mood the day before does seem to stick out though.  "Probably happier than I've seen him in a while.  Though maybe a bit preoccupied with that book."

 

 

"I only really noticed it before I told him about the baby.  I thought maybe you caught something later that I hadn't."  She worries her bottom lip.  "But you think this has been going on for longer?  Did we miss something?"

 

 

Emma doesn't think she's ever known a parent as concerned for their children's well being as Regina.

 

 

She might not have the best personal experiences to use as a comparison, but even those perfect families she envied as a child - on television or in books - are incredibly lacking when put side by side with Regina's love for their son.  And there will never be a moment that she isn't amazed at how much she had lucked out - to have her son go to someone so caring, to be brought back into this family and become a part of it.  Some day she might actually find the words to express the joy and gratitude that fills her with daily.  So far, she hasn't gotten close.

 

 

"I doubt there's some massive thing going on that he's keeping from us."  Emma isn't sure she's being reassuring, but the tight smile - the one that says Regina is trying to believe her against all the evidence she has built up in her head since Henry came home yesterday - tells her that she's getting somewhere.

 

 

She smiles back and runs fingers through dark hair.

 

 

"He's a teenager, and a writer on top of that, so there's gonna be times when he's emo-" Regina chuckles at her wording - "We'll find badly written poetry all over the house.  There will be things he doesn't want to talk to us about.  Which is going to be strange, cause kid loves to talk about  _everything_.  But that doesn't mean we're missing signs that something awful is happening."

 

 

"I don't like it," Regina says through a pout.

 

 

"I didn't think you would."  Emma laughs and leans down to kiss her.  "I'm not saying we'll just let him wallow, don't worry.  More that, this is normal.  I'll talk to him before breakfast."

 

 

"I love you," Regina says, gripping the back of Emma's neck to keep her close.

 

 

Emma nuzzles her cheek.  "Not that I don't enjoy you throwing 'I love you' around whenever you feel moved to, but-"

 

 

"You always know what I need."

 

 

She smiles up at Emma and Emma can't deny the urge to give her another kiss.

 

 

"I try my best," she says, words mumbled against Regina's lips.

 

 

The kiss is sweet and slow.  Full of gentle affection instead of the playfulness of earlier.  And broken short by a loud grumbling complaint from Regina's stomach.

 

 

They break apart with laughter.  Regina holds Princess close in the hope that the movement won't wake her.

 

 

"What you need right now is food."

 

 

Regina snorts but nods in agreement.

 

 

"So I'm gonna talk to our son, then I'll make sure you get fed."

 

 

Emma presses a quick kiss to Regina's stomach, provoking more laughter before she jumps out of bed.

 

 

"You need to take Princess," Regina says.  Emma gives her a questioning look but makes her way around the bed to take the kid from her anyway.  "She's been doing better when she has body contact with someone.  Or that's the theory I've been working with."

 

 

"Sounds plausible."

 

 

"Thank you, Emma," she says once she gets up and wraps her robe around herself.  "I have things to check on in the lab, but I shouldn't be too long."

 

*

 

"Morning," Emma says from Henry's doorway.

 

 

He mumbles a response, not looking up from whatever he's reading.  She takes it to mean she's allowed to come in and does, holding Princess to her chest.  There is one of his large, leatherbound books on his lap, which she wasn't expecting to see this early on a Sunday.

 

 

"What are you up to?"

 

 

He shrugs, then groans and flips the book shut.

 

 

"Nothing helpful."

 

 

She's not entirely sure what to make of that, but it troubles her.

 

 

"I don't know why you're worried about being productive while you're still in bed on a Sunday morning, but I'd still like to know what's up.  Which book is that?"

 

 

"It's ours," he says.  When he notices her confusion, he rolls his eyes but goes on anyway.  "You know, the book I started writing about our family's story, once I got the pen.  I don't usually go into the trance for it, but I was hoping..." He trails off and groans again.

 

 

"Hoping what?"

 

 

"I thought if maybe I'd gone into a trance last night, it might tell us who she is, but nothing happened.  So I started reading back through things because maybe there's some foreshadowing that will be helpful now that she's here, but I haven't been able to find anything like that either."

 

 

Emma's eyes widen at how much thought her son has put into this.  She's impressed.

 

 

"That's a really great idea."

 

 

"But it didn't lead anywhere!"

 

 

She thinks she understands Regina's concern about Henry's behavior better now.  She might not have noticed it the day before, but it isn't new to her either. She sinks slowly down onto the bed next to him while she thinks, careful not to wake Princess.  There's a high possibility that he's frustrated about things beyond this case, or even his books.  But that's all she has to go on at the moment, so she'll take it.

 

 

"It was still a really good idea, kid.  Those don't always pan out the way we want, but that doesn't automatically make them bad or worthless.  And you got a book out immediately yesterday, so I know you've got more ideas churning away up there."

 

 

He nods, but he and his mother get the same look when they're not sure they believe in her optimism.  She reaches out to give his knee a squeeze.

 

 

"How have you been doing?"

 

 

He gives her a suspicious look.

 

 

"Did Mom send you to check in on me?"

 

 

Emma opens her mouth to deny it, but closes it before anything can come out.  "It's quite possible," is what she settles on after giving it a moment of thought.

 

 

"I'm fine!" he says.  He flops back against his pillows dramatically and groans.

 

 

Living in a house with the teenaged son of the Evil Queen is going to be a trip.  She tries not to grin at the thought, but a little smirk sneaks through.  It's nice to know that if anyone ever again doubted Regina's place in his life, she can simply direct them with a big flashing arrow to moments like this.

 

 

She sighs and leans back next to him.  Princess fusses at the movement, but a little shifting to make sure she's still snuggled comfortably to Emma's chest and she seems content.

 

 

"Here's the thing, kid.  The only time I spent with you yesterday was when we were all excited about the baby, but your mom is a bit worried."  She puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder and looks him over closely.  He has spent a good chunk of the time sulking since she came in.  But if she's honest, her parents coming in and pestering her first thing on a Sunday morning would make her sulk too.  "I think a big part of it is being worried that all of this new stuff is overwhelming.  We don't want anything you're dealing with to fall through the cracks because there's a baby in the house."

 

 

He shrugs in response, but there is a small smile forming on his lips, so Emma will take this as a hope speech well delivered.

 

 

"It's not school stuff, is it?  Everything there has been going well recently."  He rolls his eyes but the smile is a little toothy now.  "Or friend stuff?  Or... oh!  Oh.  Do you like someone?"

 

 

This time his whine hits a whole range of notes.  She smirks.  She is about to say that she's impressed when Princess lets out a piercing cry right below her ear.

 

 

"Okay, two against one.  That topic is definitely off limits."

 

 

She gets up and starts walking around the room, bouncing the baby to get her to settle again.  Henry sits upright and plugs his ears.

 

 

"Is she hungry?"

 

 

Emma wonders if those will be the most frequently uttered words in this house for the next several days, but she shakes her head.  Even last night they were getting almost three hours between feedings.  Now she has been woken up by an unpleasant sound and she's just cranky.  Emma winces at a particularly ear-splitting wail.  Shifting the baby so she can cradle her, she puts a finger near Princess's mouth to see if she'll take it like earlier and be satisfied with that for a while.

 

 

"Maaa!" Henry whines over the noise, which doesn't help.

 

 

Her finger doesn't work and with the headache she can feel just around the corner, her ability to come up with solutions to this is rapidly diminishing.  And then she remembers her unsuccessful attempt at distracting her with the badge last night.  Perhaps now that she knows the kid isn't hungry, something shiny will do the trick.

 

 

"Are your keys up here?"

 

 

"Why?"

 

 

He gets up to grab them from his desk without waiting for an answer and Emma grins.  As soon as he hands her the keys, she dangles them in front of Princess, shaking them so they jingle together.  And she prays.

 

 

Nothing happens at first.  The crying covers up the noise of the keys.  Emma lowers them, defeated again, but as she does, the cold metal touches a little flailing hand.  Princess gives one last hiccupping cry and goes still.  Her eyes focus in amazement at this new object in front of her.

 

 

Henry and Emma still as well, worried that any movement might set her off again.

 

 

When she gives a happy squeal, they grin at each other.  They have conquered a crying fit without Regina present.  There's a quick fist bump, then Emma goes back to dangling the keys.

 

*

 

It takes a bit for them to get properly situated in the kitchen before the pancake making can begin.  With Henry's help, Emma is able to gather ingredients while holding Princess in one arm.  She even manages getting the breakfast sausages started without incident.  Honestly, it's unfair that Regina isn't around to witness this because Emma's got some impressive skills going on and it's incredibly attractive.

 

 

It's when she starts trying to pour milk into a measuring cup one-handed that Henry laughs and finally offers to take the kid.

 

 

"You could always make the pancakes yourself," Emma says while placing Princess in his arms.

 

 

"But I love your pancakes!  They're delicious."

 

 

"Oh flattery, that works wonders for breakfast.  Just don't think it will get you out of any of your other chores."

 

 

"What about bribery?" he asks casually.

 

 

He doesn't look up from where he's helping Princess dance on his lap, but Emma can see his smirk.

 

 

"What already have people in this town calling us a corrupt government.  We don't need word getting out about our own son bribing us," she says, pointing an egg at him menacingly before breaking it over the bowl.  "Don't let your mother hear you talking like that.  You already got me in trouble once this weekend."

 

 

Henry laughs, but then Regina walks into the kitchen and gives them both pointed looks.

 

 

"Let me hear about what now?"

 

 

Emma smiles innocently as she stirs in flour.

 

 

"Ma worries that I'm corrupting government officials."

 

 

"Well, that's alright then," Regina says before Emma can deny it.  She smirks at Emma, eyes alight with playfulness, then walks into the kitchen to kiss the top of Henry and Princess's heads.  "Good morning, sweetheart."

 

 

"Morning Mom."

 

 

"Chocolate chips?" Emma asks as she turns the stovetop on and bends to dig out the proper pan.

 

 

"I think it's a good day for chocolate chips," Regina says over the clamor of metal cookware.  Henry and Emma cheer in response and Princess joins in with an excited shriek.  "I'm glad we're all agreed."

 

 

"As if we'd ever not agree about chocolate chips," Emma says as she dumps a bunch into the batter.

 

 

Regina joins her at the stove as she starts cooking the first pancake.  She leans back against the counter so she can watch Emma and, apparently, play with the untied strings of Emma's pajama bottoms.  Her smirk answers Emma's curious look, but it's quickly wiped away when Emma leans in to kiss her.  Letting Regina hold her for a moment, Emma smiles and runs her free hand over the soft wool of Regina's sweater.  Well, the sweater Regina bought her but inevitably steals every couple of months.

 

 

"You look nice."

 

 

She looks adorable really, but Emma isn't sure if she's in the sort of mood where that kind of comment would be appreciated.  From the way Regina chuckles into the shoulder she's nuzzling, she would probably enjoy it.

 

 

Emma and Henry are still in pajamas, not seeing the point in changing before breakfast on weekends.  It's not a tradition Regina often joins them in, but today their plan to not leave the house seems to be unanimous.  Regina is in her staying home outfit.

 

 

She always looks good.  The woman knows how to dress better than anyone Emma has ever met.  But this outfit is by far Emma's favorite.  The leggings, the fuzzy slippers, the oversized sweater that is usually from Emma's side of the closet.  She looks soft in a way she still rarely allows herself outside the house.

 

 

And then there's the added bonus from a morning spent in the lab: hair up in a quick, haphazard ponytail, and glasses.

 

 

Adorable.

 

 

"How are the experiments going?" Emma asks as she flips another pancake.

 

 

"They're going," Regina says and sighs.  Emma can't get a good read on her mood to understand what that might mean and before she can continue, the doorbell rings.

 

 

Henry jumps up and yells, "I'll get it!"  Princess giggles at the sudden movement, but Regina tells him to sit back down while she finally releases her hold on Emma's pajama strings.

 

 

"We don't want to answer the door with the baby," she reminds them as she leaves the kitchen.

 

 

The next set of pancakes have been poured when a familiar voice comes in from the foyer.

 

 

"I heard there's a new baby in the house!"  Snow's excited voice echoes through the vaulted entryway.  Emma can just make out Regina's responding, "good morning to you too, Snow," and isn't sure if she wants to laugh or groan.

 

 

The image is clear in her mind: Regina with the door open only a fraction and Snow plowing through with her stroller before Regina can invite her in.  Their relationship has improved noticeably since they became family again, but Snow is still not the best at boundaries.

 

 

Emma rolls her eyes.  She knows her mother would have come around eventually, but she had hoped they would be able to have their first breakfast together before having to entertain guests.  She can almost hear Regina's voice chiding her.  'It's only your mother,' she would say, as if she doesn't try to keep as many of their interactions under an hour as she can.

 

 

She huffs at the imagined hypocrisy.  She huffs again when she checks the pancake and finds they aren't ready to turn yet.

 

 

It's fine, she tells herself.  She can survive a breakfast with her mother.  The kid's presence means that most of Snow's attention will be on her instead of Emma and it gives them something to talk about.  

 

 

Emma is mostly over the whole Lily thing.  Or she will be when she can find the real Lily and finally bring her home.  The knowledge that her parents had so little belief in her ability to be a decent fucking human being that they had sacrificed an unhatched dragon baby to make her good hurts, but she's over it.  And she's fine.

 

 

She takes a deep breath and flips the pancakes.  Perfection.  At least her pancake making skills are a thing she can depend on.

 

 

The worst part of this whole mess is that her processing imperfections of her family history led to her asking Regina questions about things that she had always known must have happened.  There had been a time when a lack of confirmation from Regina had allowed her to pretend, but it felt wrong to pretend her family hadn't caused Regina great suffering while she was angry at them for much less.  Regina would be cross with her for weighing Regina's traumas against her own because it turns out she married a fucking saint.  She thinks the only reason her family made it through that in one piece is because Regina had told her that she would never forgive herself if she didn't have her parents at her wedding.  Which is probably true.  Still, her relationship with her mother is a work in progress.

 

 

Thank god she and her father have a strong working relationship or that would still be a mess too.

 

 

She takes another deep breath when the sounds of "cake! Cake!" come through from the foyer.

 

 

Neal is not quite two yet and still doesn't talk as much as everyone had assumed a child of Snow's would.  He does, however, have a favorite food and a corresponding favorite word.  Regina has apparently invited them in for breakfast.

 

 

A moment later there is the sound of little toddler feet running into the kitchen.  She smirks when she hears both Regina and Snow calling after him to slow down.

 

 

"Cake!" he yells, undeterred.

 

 

"Hey buddy," Emma says and can't help grinning.  "I hear someone's making your favorite food."

 

 

He yells again and laughs.  And then she feels little arms wrap around her leg in a hug.  

 

 

Regina and Snow follow soon after.  As soon as Regina catches her attention, she holds up a book with a smiling baby on the cover and rolls her eyes.  "Your mother thinks I need a book on how to care for a baby, as if I didn't do this once already.  Alone."

 

 

"And Henry's turned out wonderfully-" Henry rolls his eyes - "but a lot has changed in thirteen years!  That book has all kinds of advice."

 

 

The continue bickering as Regina leads them them into the dining room.  Emma smiles. Yeah, she's got this.  Breakfast won't be so bad.

 

*

 

And breakfast is going pretty well.  Snow has spent a great deal of time cooing over Princess, as Emma had hoped.  A well timed bottle from Regina saves them from what would surely have been a great deal of tears from the hungry baby duo.  And once Princess is eating, and then placed in her infant seat while they eat, Snow turns her attention to Henry.  Emma almost feels bad for the way Henry always seems caught in the middle playing peace maker, except that he seems to thrive on it. 

 

 

Plus, the pancakes are delicious.  An experience, in Emma's very humble opinion.  The way they and the syrup and the breakfast sausages all work together to make her tastebuds sing in salty-sweet bliss is nothing less than divine.  

 

 

She moans through a bite of sausage dipped in maple syrup and when she opens her eyes, she finds Regina watching her with amusement.

 

 

"So what have you been up to this weekend besides baby things?"  The question is clearly directed towards Henry.

 

 

"It's mostly been baby things, actually.  I've been thinking about what kind of story she might have, if she came from a different place, so I have a better idea of where to find her in the books.  And I thought maybe she would have ended up in a forest either way.  Like, if she hadn't ended up in Storybrooke, her story would be about her growing up in the wild."

 

 

"Like Mowgli?" Emma asks.

 

 

"Yeah exactly."  He grins at her for a moment before turning back to cutting up his food.  "We were texting last night, trying to think of stories that might involve babies being lost in the woods, and it made me think of his own."

 

 

"That's great team work," Snow says, smiling at him.

 

 

Regina frowns.  "I'm not sure if that could be the case.  I never did tell you how the tests had been doing this morning.  I'm still having difficulty pinpointing the origin of the magic user, or what exactly the magic was.  But the one thing I can say conclusively is that it wasn't a portal from somewhere else; the magic came from here."  She gives Henry a sympathetic smile and squeezes his wrist.  "It was a great theory, but Princess was here before yesterday."

 

 

"So I'm back to having no ideas," Henry says, his mood gloomy.  He goes back to eating but doesn't seem to be enjoying it.

 

 

"Not necessarily.  I think you're probably looking in the right direction," Regina says.  He looks up at her, interested, and she smiles back.  "We know she didn't come here from somewhere else yesterday morning, but it doesn't rule out the possibility that she was brought here before then, or that her mother came here from somewhere else before she was born.  You might not be able to find Princess's story, but her family's is in one of your books."

 

 

Henry seems to think about this while he eats.

 

 

"Besides, we're not the ones doing the primary investigations," Emma reminds them.  "Now we know that she didn't come through a portal yesterday, there must be a record of her in town.  Dad and Mulan are talking to anyone who had a baby around the time Princess was born.  And if it's someone who's come through a portal in the last few months, that shouldn't be too hard to narrow down.  There haven't been that many lately.  So don't worry kid, we'll find her family."

 

 

"Oh yes, David did mention that they're almost done checking in with the families on the hospital's records.  He said they'll be looking through the midwife records next."

 

 

Snow has a thoughtful look on her face when she stops talking.  It gives Emma a sinking feeling in her gut.

 

 

"Mom?"

 

 

"Hmm."  She seems to be thinking through her words so they aren't taken the wrong way.  And while Snow thinking before she speaks might make Emma glad any other time, there's something about this turn in the conversation that has her on edge.  "Have you checked in on Zelena at all?"

 

 

"Excuse me?"  

 

 

Emma can see Regina's nostrils flaring already. 

 

 

"It's not that I'm really worried that she's relapsed or... whatever.  It's just that-" she trails off because she can see the heat in Regina's eyes.  Emma slumps down in her chair.  "Regina, you have to admit, this sounds so like her!  The portal and the magic and the location being so close to the farm house-" Emma's face warms because she never did end up telling Regina about that - "and... She took Neal, Regina!  I know she's well on the path to redemption and we've forgiven her but I can't sit here and-"

 

 

"No."

 

 

Emma had been watching Regina, seen the way her grip on the table grew tighter with each word that fell from Snow's mouth, seen her eyes darken and narrow.  No matter how loudly Emma internally begged her mother to stop talking, she hadn't.  And Emma hadn't done a thing to stop her.  But Regina has never been one to quietly take Snow's careless words and she stands up.  The sound of her chair scraping on the hardwood floor sends a wave of nausea through Emma's stomach.

 

 

"I will not sit here-" her words are a quiet, spitting mockery of Snow's self-righteous anger - "and let you slander my sister while you sit at my table and eat my food.  She has worked harder to become someone you and your small minded friends will see as 'good' than you ever have.  We may be family again, but that will not stop me from kicking you out of my house."

 

 

"Regina I'm-"

 

 

Emma doesn't know if her mother is about to apologize or stand her ground.  She does know that right now, Regina will react to both the same way.  Picking bits of her mother off the ceiling is not how she wants to spend her Sunday.  And Regina would never forgive herself if she did anything irreparable to Snow once her rage had passed.  No matter how complicated their relationship may be.

 

 

"Mom, stop."  When it looks like Snow's about to fight her on this, she shakes her head.  "I think it'd be best if you left."

 

 

Snow looks like she might start crying, but Emma knows whose side she needs to be on.  She stands up next to her wife and takes hold of her trembling hand.  Regina doesn't flinch.

 

 

"Please Mom."

 

 

Snow's teary eyes search hers for a moment, then she nods.  It's then that they realize the children are no longer present.

 

 

"They're probably in Henry's room," Regina says before Snow can ask.  "I'll go get them."

 

 

"Henry's a good boy," Snow says.  Regina merely nods and walks off.

 

 

'Henry is a smart boy,' Emma thinks.  He knows that whether Regina or Snow came to find him, they would have to be in separate places.  Of course it would have been much less awkward for Emma if Snow had gone to find Neal herself, but she doubts Regina would appreciate Snow wandering her house alone right now, so she's happy to take one for the team.

 

"I'll um, get your coat," is all Emma can say before walking out of the room.  Snow follows silently after her.

 

 

Snow is getting the stroller ready to leave when Henry comes down with Neal.  She sighs and pouts when it's clear that Regina isn't coming down behind them.  Emma doesn't know how Snow could think Regina would want to, but then, she's probably only upset that it means she won't get to see Princess again.

 

 

After getting Neal strapped in and giving Henry a hug, she turns to Emma.  "I'm sorry that I made Regina angry and a mess of breakfast."

 

 

All Emma can manage is a nod.  Her mother only apologizes for things she actually regrets, so Emma trusts that she sincerely hadn't meant to upset Regina.  Which tells Emma that her mother doesn't understand why Regina is upset in the first place.  And given how that was sort of a pivotal role in the beginning of their feud, Emma doesn't think Regina will care much for the apology.  Not to mention, it makes it clear that Snow is going to hold firm in her belief that Zelena is guilty.

 

 

That wave of nausea hits her again as Snow leaves.  Her own thoughts of Zelena's guilt might have been fleeting, but she'd had them.  Her gut tells her Regina might not see much of a difference.

 

 

She slumps down on the bottom step next to her son.

 

 

"Thank you for getting Neal out of there."  She rubs his shoulder.  "Neither of you should have to witness these fights."

 

 

He nods but her gratitude doesn't seem to make him feel much better.

 

 

*

 

She finds Regina in the nursery, sitting in the rocking chair with Princess drifting off in her arms.  The blinds are pulled closed and the lights are off, leaving her in shadow.  Emma has barely entered the dim room when she hears her sniffling and rushes those remaining steps.

 

 

"Hey, hey," she says, stepping close to kiss Regina's forehead and wipe the tears from her cheeks.  "I thought it best to get her out of the house as quick as possible, but there's plenty of time for me to track her down and seek revenge for her slandering your family's name."

 

 

"You're ridiculous," Regina says, laughing wetly before sniffling again.  "Your job is to put an end to this feud, not continue it."

 

 

"My job is justice!"  She stands straight and puffs out her chest.  Regina snorts.  It doesn't go well (the sniffles), but Emma conjures up a tissue from their room a moment later and hands it to her.  "Though my most important job is making sure my wife is okay."

 

 

Regina's lower lip quivers and Emma isn't sure if it's because she's trying not to laugh or if she's about to start crying again.

 

 

"I love you so much," she says, and Emma can tell from the look in her eyes just how true that is.  "I'm sorry about breakfast.  You and Snow have been making so much progress, but she said all those things and... She's able to piss me off like no one else can."

 

 

"I know, and I should have stepped in sooner."  She helps Regina up and keeps her close, lifting up her chin so can press a gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth.  "What she said was unacceptable and I'm sorry I let her say it."

 

 

"You don't think Zelena could have done this?" she asks, holding Princess close.

 

 

"No, I don't.  She's done some awful things and her reasons for doing them may have been... well, kinda dumb," she says.  Regina smiles, tight lipped like she still can't quite believe.  "But we know what they were and she doesn't have them any more.  You have each other and I'm gonna make sure that doesn't change."

 

 

"Thank you."

 

 

Emma wipes her finger under Regina's eye, catching another tear before it could fall.  

 

 

"Of course," she says as she leads Regina from the nursery.  "And thankfully all it will take is figuring out who actually did this."

 

 

Mentally she adds, 'before anyone else comes to the same conclusions as my mother.' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here's the thing. this obviously isn't done yet. we're about half way through and there's a lot coming. they still have to figure out who's behind this and find Princess's family (and we'll learn her name! promise!), and there's lots of adorable things like Regina taking her to work and Henry reading to her. plus those other two scenes inspired by Tianna's manips!!


End file.
